Hello Patron. Good to see you here. Have a great reading time with us! Choose your pick and indulge! Don't forget to share your views. Thanks for visiting.

Last Seen At The Terminal

Its been her dream to occupy that coveted corner cabin. It had the best view of the open skies. The very skies that fascinated her since childhood. Looking up, darting her eyes towards the starry deep blue skies, she always had thought of being one amongst them. How wonderful it would be to float in the crowd of the galaxies, she had wondered, all thorough out the days of growing up. Utter silence, floating in anonymity… aha what a solace! Solace that she was searching for since childhood.

“She is a star material”,
most of the teachers had opined about her while growing up. May it be
academics, extracurricular activities or sports, there was not a single corner
of the life that she had not sparkled with her achievements and
participation.

Following her
passion, she took up Astro-Physics and was soon selected as the research
scientist at world renowned Space Center, post her masters. Aided by out of box thinking and hard
work, a rare combination one would note, she managed to acquire the position of
the Team Lead soon. A Team Lead at Extra-galactic Explorations division, at an early
stage of life, was no mean feat!

She was happy.
Not for the perks that fetched the promotion, but for two distinct reasons. One was getting the corner cabin, that was pretty isolated. Here she could carry out her trials without
any disturbance, she had thought well in advance. And second, she would now be able to lay her hands on reserved
resources of the space center. She now
was so near to realize her dream, she had thought. Just one more milestone and
she was done!

Soon, her cabin
turned into a miniature R & D lab. She was found most of the time experimenting
with the light sources and gauging devices. Tweaking various algorithms and
programs was another thing that she was busy indulging at her terminal. At times, the fire alarm went off courtesy her failed experiments. Occasionally thin sheet of smoke and burnt smell enveloped the entire top floor owing busting of circuits and the gadgets. The in house fire and safety department also got
used to it. Her
sheepish grin was enough to melt away the cobweb of lines on the forehead
of the Safety Chief!

The notice board in her cabin was half filled with the clipped "Show cause" notices, though!

On hearing the
loud bang and then the subsequent fire alarm, one fine day, no one was
startled. However as a part of the duty, the Safety Chief brought himself to
her cabin. A thick layer of smoke covered every inch of the cabin. Coughing and
adjusting his eye sight, he called out…

“So what’s the
celebration this time around, Ms Asta! Found a new supernova, eh?”

His question was
lost in the smoke. Sensing something ominous, he reached out to his walky-talky.
A waft of air whispered in deep tone…

“Don’t worry
mister, this was the last”

Before he could
pull it out, he felt a gentle breeze passing by and the smoke was cleared, as
if something had vacuumed it. Not a trace of it was left behind.

The charred
remains of the terminal, innumerable wires and circuits and a revolving chair
greeted him. And then where was she? There were no human remains to be seen. As the
support staff banged into the cabin, they saw their chief standing in the
centre of the cabin, dumbfounded! The silence was broken by the fluttering of
the pages coming from the diary at the corner of the table. He walked towards it almost hypnotized and held the
diary in his shaking hands.

“Tomorrow, I will
be one amongst them. I will be in the company of many orphans, just like me, my clan… Yes,
these stars and galaxies are orphans. No one mocks them for being abandoned at birth. Isn't it cool that they are not bothered about their origins! I am Asta, the star, and will remain one forever.”

The dairy fell off the chief’s hand as it stopped echoing the words.

Umpteen server
dumps from Ms Asta’s account later, confirmed that she was working on
tele-porting ! "A bright star is spotted from the M42 nebula", announced the official statement from the Space Agency…

The case of mysterious disappearance of Ms Asta was
marked unresolved and yet closed with the statement of the Safety Chief…

“Last seen at the
terminal”

-----By MocktailMommy Anagha

*Asta- Name with a Greek origin, meaning "a Star"

*M42 nebula is 20 light years across earth and can be seen with naked eyes in the night sky. It is the nearest nebula from earth.

46 comments:

Oh my Anagha your suspense building is just amazing and in this story too you held my attention unwaveringly! What a brilliant take on thr prompt! Love how you have ended this story with that tantalising line!!!